Signed Tara, Udaipur, circa 1850-60Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; with the sun is showing rising over the mountain the ruler and his entourage are elevated on three richly adorned elephants draped in brown camouflage cloths. The out-riding camels are more colorfully adorned with bright saddle cloth and all the members of the party are in dark green attire except for three camel riders. The upper corner shows one camel being downed by a boar after gouging one rider and the other is being tossed. Two dogs race to attack the boar while other footman approach the melee. The perimeter of the composition is fenced by a stylized tree-like fence to contain the fleeing boar.Image: 12 x 19 in. (30.9 x 48.2 cm.); Folio: 13 3/4 x 21 in. (34.9 x 53.3 cm.)

Footnotes

Compare with a very closely related composition of Maharana Sarup Singh shooting boar from elephant-back in the, dated 1855 in Victoria and Albert Museum (IS.558-1952). In discussion his of the V&A painting Court Painting at Udaipur, 2001, no. 242, p. 266) Topfield refers to the present lot and notes "...the scubby hillscape is even more attenuated, and the hunters float in an undifferentiated glare of the lurid foreign pigment"

Also compare with another scene by Tara of Maharana Sarup Singh and his courtiers on elephants celebrating the festival of Holi, circa 1850 in The City Palace Museum, Udaipur (2010.T.0011). Also compare the palette and treatment of the elephants in Maharana Shambhu Singh riding a young elephant by Tara, dated 1864 in National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (AS289-1980). Also see Sotheby's, London, October 10, 1988, lot 98 for similar composition and treatments of the elephants.

The artist Tara thrived under the patronage of prince Sarup Singh (r. 184261), who commissioned him to document all elements of court life, equestrian pursuits, and hunts. Tara's work is distinguished by the breakthrough use of jarring and luminous green pigments imported from the west and he, and his son Sivalal (see lot 1216), probably represents the last gasp of the magnificence of Indian painting under traditional royal patronage.

Provenance: Acquired from Terry McInerny, 1993

Reference:Andrew Topsfiled, Court Painting at Udaipur: Under the Patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar, Zurich, 2001, p. 264.

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